The Importance Of Second Language Education

The United States is becoming more and more bilingual every day. It is important for students of the United States of America to keep up with the advancing world. The easiest way to learn a second language is when a person is young. This is why it would be beneficial for schools to start teaching a foreign language in kindergarten and continuing it through twelfth grade. Students are more likely to learn and remember a foreign language if they are introduced to it at a young age. A majority of other countries teach foreign languages to their students throughout their school lives. Most students coming out of high school in other countries are totally

An impressive 16.2% of students in the Federal Way public school system self-identify as Hispanic (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. Of these students, 23.9% are foreign born (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. These students are often multilingual, switching to Spanish when home. In fact, 32.4 percent of students speak a different language at home (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. It should not come as a surprise that language is a major component of one’s culture. Most American schools place a heavy emphasis on

The continued growth of speakers of languages other than English is reflected in the rapidly increasing students in U.S. schools for whom English is a second language. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2005) show that the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English reached almost 10 million in 2004. Such a dramatic increase continually challenges educators to provide effective language programs with quality instruction for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Some educators choose to view these challenges as opportunities by offering a dual bilingual program as an educational option for meeting the needs of monolingual speakers.

By many researchers, it has been hypothesized that language could be acquired only within a critical period, which is from early infancy to puberty. If this is true, this should be extended to second language acquisition as well, and, if so, young children should be better at acquiring the second language than adults, and younger children should reach higher levels of proficiency in the second language. If this prediction is true, it would importantly demonstrate that children should be exposed to language with rich vocabulary and grammar within the critical period, and foreign language exposure at school should take place in early grades in order to maximize their opportunity to learn the language effectively. However, the motivation and the purpose of learning the target language may differ depending on the individuals and those factors can limit or expand the exposure to the target language. In this paper, I would like to discuss the correlation between the age that bilingual individuals are exposed to the second language as well as their motivation, purpose, and value of learning the second language. I would like to suggest that regardless of the age that individuals are exposed to the second language, if one values the importance of learning the second language and maximize their exposure to the targeted language, they can reach to the native level of proficiency in that language.

In “Why Foreign Language Education Matters” Representative Rush Holt expresses the idea that the average American is generally deprived of what is known as cultural enrichment in their day-to-day lives, even though others believe that English should be the primary and only language Americans should speak. Holt conveys the overall concept that being bilingual, trilingual, or multilingual is a benefit not just for oneself but for our society. Rush Holt presents the argument with extreme concern for our upcoming generations and the consequences it may cause our nation’s economy to decrease in federal funding’s for education programs, as well as our global marketplace and national security who is highly dependent of translators, specialist, and

Although there are approximately 7,097 languages spoken around the world, 75 percent of the United States of America’s population cannot speak a second language. Twenty-eight percent of Americans feel that they do not need to know a second language because everyone they know speaks English or they expect all those they encounter to speak English. Because such a large percentage of Americans are monolingual, they often struggle to communicate with those in foreign countries because they do not know the native languages. This is largely due to the lack of language classes offered through the American school system, and not starting languages early in education. The solution to help close language and cultural barriers for Americans is starting foreign languages earlier in schools around the United States.

Bilingualism will someday be a skill that is necessary to succeed in life. Already, most colleges in the United States expect incoming freshmen to have studied a foreign language for three or more years. High school students are sometimes surprised by these requirements because it is difficult to master a foreign language that they have only begun to study in their teenage years. Foreign language education is important worldwide today because it improves children’s growth patterns and helps children understand cultural aspects of the foreign language.

While having the opportunity to take a foreign language is a great thing, we should not be waiting to post elementary school to teach it. A foreign language should be taught when the mind is in its language acquisition stage. Foreign language is more than common thing here in the United States of America. We are culturally diverse nation, filled with many different nationalities. According to Carla McClure, an education writer, she argues the benefits of early second language acquisition. She references numerous studies, one being the correlation between second language learning and improved mental process. As well as, mentioning that children who starting learning a second language before middle school are more like to speak the language fluently.

College students believe a two-year foreign language requirement is too much to ask for. However, college students do not realize in today’s economy, many careers and job opportunities such as doctors, teachers, law enforcements, and military, are careers that are demanding proficiency not only in English comprehension, but in a foreign language as well to accommodate customers, patients, and recruits. Out of all the languages in the United States, Spanish specifically is in high

A survey done by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 found that "The findings indicate a serious disconnect between the national call to educate world citizens with high-level language skills and the current state of foreign language instruction in schools across the country"(Cal:Research). This is concerning as all of the competition for the U.S. is gaining a step and we 're doing nothing . If the U.S. expects to continue to be competitive in the global market we need to have bilingual citizens. In order to ensure this, we must require a foreign language be learned in high school.

Language is a key part of any family, community, culture and the human race. Without language the world today would be much different. From cavemen, to the Egyptian use of hieroglyphics, to Old English, to more than 6,500 languages spoken around the world today, the advances that humans have made in language is remarkable and inspiring. The ability to speak, read, write and understand more than one language is also remarkable and expands the liberties in life, especially for young people. High school students should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language class in order to graduate, as many recent studies support the benefits of doing so. Students who have learned a foreign language in high school have proven to have a

Language acquisition is the goal of both European and American educational systems. There are differences in approach between the two systems that create a discrepancy in the effectiveness of the education. The American system bases the need for dual language learning on need of students to learn English and the advantages of a second language for well-off students and usually ends by late elementary school. European schools base their entire school system on dual language for all students from primary through secondary school. With the stated goal being bilingual, the European educational system is superior to the American system.

The United States is further behind in education than many other countries. They are lacking behind in math and science compared to Asian countries. They are more below in arts than European countries. They are also further behind in foreign language than the rest of the world. Children are more receptive to learning when it begins at an early age. To obtain a positive and better quality of learning, foreign language should be considered in being implemented in primary school.

A growing new educational trend across the US, is learning a foreign language. Foreign languages not only benefit adults, but can also broaden the minds of young children. The pros, cons, and the effect a foreign language can have on children come into effect at an earlier stage when taught.

Some of the challenges that many second language learners have to face with have to do with aspects of the form-to-function and function-to-form mapping, or the concept-oriented approach. Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig describes the main point of it that “adult learners of second languages have access to the full range of semantic concepts from their previous linguistic and cognitive experience.” However, Von Stutterheim and Klein argue that “a second language learner- in contrast to a child learning his first language- does not have to acquire the underlying concepts. What he has to acquire is a specific way and a specific means of expressing them” (VanPatten and Williams, 2015). The form-to-function analysis states that forms (particular lexical items/units) will develop, or be used by learners, before they actually know how to use them in any way resembling native speaker patterns of usage. There are arguments about the directionality of the system. In other words, learners will most likely map in both directions at different times depending on their learning situation as well as their background knowledge, including knowledge of their L1. Therefore, somebody learning a language very similar to their first language will probably be able to use the forms of their first language to help decide what some of the functions are and vice versa. For someone trying to learn a new language which is quite different from their native language they might actually need to rely on functions